Pages

May 02, 2013

Big Data versus Big Value
Operational decisions are arguably the most important layer for embracing analytics for several reasons. One reason is that executing the corporate strategy is not solely accomplished with strategy maps and the resulting key performance indicators displayed in a balanced scorecard and dashboards. The daily operational decisions are what actually move the performance measure dials more than big strategic decisions.

Blackberry CEO's comments ignite debate on future of personal computing
"I think [Heins] is looking for publicity. He cannot be serious in his prediction, [which is] pretty much akin to saying the Earth is flat," said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. "There's no rationale for tablets dying." Dulaney said he wouldn't be surprised if BlackBerry eliminates the PlayBook, which shipped only 150,000 or so units in the third quarter of 2012. "They probably would not be successful with a new tablet if they reintroduced a tablet," he added.

Five questions directors need to ask about the cloud
“Board members need a clear understanding of cloud computing benefits and how to maximise them through effective governance practices,” said Marc Vael, an ISACA board member and chief IT audit executive at Smals.“This requires the board to see cloud computing not as an IT project, but rather as a business strategy.” ... boards should address the following five questions to determine the strategic value that cloud services are expected to provide and the impact that the cloud may have on resources and controls:

Today, most (and, no, not all) datacenters are colocated and typically "lights-off" datacenters. That is, while we still purchase, lease and manage the infrastructure, it is very much hands off. ... So, if we assume that in five years most of the regulatory compliance, security, connectivity, and other issues would be resolved, what other barriers do you have for running your business completely on an IaaS?

Texas hospice group sees HIPAA breach
After conducting an internal audit in February 2013, Hope Hospice officials discovered the employee emailed patient data back in December 2012 and again in February 2013. The data sent in the reports included 818 patient names, referral source, referral and admission dates, insurance information, clinical chart data, county and date of discharge. Social Security numbers, patient dates of birth and addresses were not contained in the report, officials added.

Bank of America CIO on Big Data, Emerging Enterprise Tech
Both terms — Big Data and cloud — needlessly create mystery around technology, Bessant says. "And technology as a mystery is a bad idea." It's harder to align the technology to the business under such a veil and "people don't know how to fund or prioritize technology decisions because we've made them so mysterious." She muses that this is why the average tenure of CIOs in general tends to be short. "Anything that distances technology from the business is inherently self-limiting," she says.

The Key to Governance
There are advocates from each of these three orientations on management who will insist that their take – and their take alone – is the most appropriate information feed for upper-level decision-makers, and will expend considerable energy to sell that narrative. Often these management “science” advocates are utterly unaware of where their pet theory exists in the overall scheme of management information streams, but the manager functioning in the role of Governance must know where they are coming from, and the limits to their advocacies.

10 Best Practices to Get BYOD Right
Here are ten best practices compiled from multiple sources and are only indicative in nature. IT leaders should use them to formulate their own detailed BYOD policies that best meet their respective needs.

IBM Launches an Appliance for the 'Internet of Things'The Message Site appliance can collect, queue, filter and route data messages based on MQTT, which OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) has just recommended to be the protocol of choice for communicating with embedded systems. Because the appliance can read the messages, it can be programmed to route them to different locations, depending on the message's content.

Why the cloud will never (entirely) replace in-house applicationsDecisions about cloud versus on-premise come down to the level of complexity in your IT infrastructure, said Michael Hanken, VP of IT at Multiquip: "For the regular 'bread and butter' processes there is no compelling reason to have it on premise; however if you are tightly integrated with important real-time components and/or very high data volumes there is still a case for on-premise ERP."

Quote for the day:"When I've heard all I need to make a decision, I don't take a vote. I make a decision." -- Ronald Reagan